Subject: Fwd: [Moon] SM3BYA to be QRV 13cm May 7/8 - first (and last?) chance...


Hello all,

It's now been more than two years since I last contributed to this reflector. About the last thing I said then was that 
"the next time you hear from me, I'll be QRV either on 23 cm or 13 cm".

Well, I'm almost there now, but... For the last year, nearly all my spare time has gone into helping the SSA fight the 
recent plan by the Swedish P&T to put up the whole of 2.3-2.45 GHz for sale. Last year, all applications for hi power 
permits for 2320-2321 here in Sweden were turned down flat with the argument that "the band was under consideration for
re-allocation...". 

After a while, it transpired that this sudden change of attitude by the P&T was the result of an initiative that had 
been pushed forward quite aggressively by the telecom industry. The 2.3-2.45 band is apparently already widely used for 
4G services in southeast Asia and the industry now wants to see it expand and develop into the next worldwide allocation. 

This is not the place to go into what has happened between then and now - it's a very long story - but the present 
situation is that some of us have again been issued high power permits. However, these are time-limited and valid only 
until June 30. The only good thing is that, as different from earlier, we are now formally permitted to transmit both in 
the 2304.1-2304. 2 segment and in the 2320.0-2320. 2 segment!

I first got interested in the 13 cm band back in the mid-1970s while still at university, after reading about the NASA 
Deep Space Network that operated on 2280 MHz in those days. Ever since then, I have been planning to get on the band 
in earnest, but getting there has been a long, drawn-out process. I'm going to retire next year and will move down to my 
SM3 QTH (920 km south of here) full-time. Was hoping to be able then to put in a decent dish and build up the rig 
methodically. Alas, with the recent actions by the P&T that may never happen-before we know it the band may be full of
 powerful pseudo-white noise emitted by hundreds of base stations...

So now I'm mounting a crash effort to fullfil the old dream. Am trying to become QRV in time for the DUBUS 13 cm activity 
and the rest of the time until June 30. Have taken two weeks off from work, will drive down to JP81nx tomorrow and start
putting an old, solid-surface 3 m dish on the gun mount that will eventually take the 7.5 m dish (which is still not in 
place, the foundation was completed only in October of last year...). 

The rest of the rig is already loaded into the car:

240-W power amplifier,
DB6NT transverter,
Preamp box w/G4DDK preamp, protection relay, circulators and dummy load for the power reflected back into the feed 
on transmit, Septum feed w/choke ring set for f/d=0.45 Switchable, hi stability LO to cover both band segments.

I'll be able to receive in the VK band at 2301.9xx but not at 2424. Overall system temperature, measured at the input to 
the preamp box, is 35 K (0.49 dB NF). The TX puts out 240 W from 2300 to 2350 and there will be about 200 W left at the 
feed. According to the VK3UM planner this should yield echoes at the 1.5...2.0 dB level at apogee in a 120 Hz BW, so 
RF-wise I should be okay.

My biggest problem will be the azimuth readout - I don't believe I will be able to rig one in time before the May 7/8 
event! so may have to work entirely by visual sighting of the moon and tracking by ear. Nevertheless, I'll try my darndest 
to work at least some of you. Please keep an ear out for me. If we don't make it on random during the weekend, I'll then 
be available for skeds until June 30 and essentially whenever the moon is above my horizon - also during the June 4/5 
weekend. I'd be very, very grateful for any skeds. If you would like to try, please drop me an email at sm2bya@telia.com


Thanks for reading this long litany, 73
Gudmund SM2BYA / SM3BYA 
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